Heart of a Mage
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: The tiniest of changes can alter everything. The smallest ripple will have long-lasting consequences. And all because she met a strange elven boy with the heart of a mage. Witness a new tale of Meredith Stannard. Before she was the Knight Commander. Before the Blight. Before the Qunari, before Hawke, before the destruction of the Circle, before...everything. NarutoxMeredith!


**A/N: I. RETURN! Despite my hellacious overtime, I've managed to drop everything for a few hours to update a few more of my stories. That, and to play Dragon Age again, thus rekindling my love for the genre and this ficlet. Just beat the game (Dragon Age II) again last night, and I thought something to myself. Meredith kinda got the short end of the stick, given the situations she was all but forced into by Anders come the end of the game. Anyone familiar with her past can see why she hates magic, I mean, her own SISTER slaughtered almost seventy people -her family, included-before being put down.**

**And I thought to myself, hmm, what if things were different? Still a Knight Commander with a hard heart, but one not so icey as we see in the game. Someone who understood the plight of mages. If she had someone who cared with her, perhaps even empathized with her...! Oh, the plot bunnies! XD Ah, but I've kept ya'll long enough, haven't I. Anywho, onwards! For the appearances of the few faces we haven't seen, such as Amelia, Guylian and Viscount Perrin Threnhold, I'm using my own imagination. Remember, we never saw what those three looked like.**

**Inquisition is nearly upon us, and I'm looking forward to it. It won't be a dissapointment...I hope. Frankly, though the story of DA II was wonderous, the constant reusing of environments grated on my nerves something fierce. But hell, as long as it has a good plot, I'll probably still play it lol. Now,I've been away from this story for so terribly long that my interest nearly waned, but a bit of information leaked to me on Dragon Age Inquisition perked me up a tad and kicked my muse into high gear =D**

** And with that, let us continue...**

**...with this new masterpiece! As a note, yes, this Naruto is from his world. As to how he got here, and how he became who-what-he is...well, that's the purpose of this story, inn'it?**

_"Magic is not a curse; so long as you know how to wield it."_

_~Meredith._

**Prologue**

_'We're...we're going to die!'_

Meredith Stannard scrambled over a bed of loose and wet cobblestones, her skirts soaked by the chill rain of autumn, her long, flaxen hair plastered to her face from the freezing drizzle above. Terror beat at her breast, sending her heart hammering harsly within her chest. There was no blade in her hand, no armor to protect her, no templars at her back to watch her flank. This was the past.

She was only twelve years old.

She slumped exhausted against a nearby grate, mouth opening and closing, chest heaving as she desperately gasped for breath. She knew her parents were somewhere beside her, somewhere beyond the stone, their frantic eyes prowling the gulley, for any sign of their pursuer. It was chasing them. Hunting them. She risked a glance down at what had once been her left arm, now burnt to such an extent that she could barely even force it into fist.

How had this happened?

A dull _whump _signaled the grate's destruction at her back. Meredith curled into a ball and somehow succeeded in shielding a bruised rib from the worst of the blast. And then their was only the intensity of raw travesty to greet her flailing form. Meredith's face became intimate with the ground in a way that no selfrespecting peasant girl would possibly want and then it saw her and she was on her feet, running again. But the creature at their heels was swift. Relentless. She didn't think she'd be able to bear looking at her again, but to her horror, her head turned and she did. Her muscles clamped down, refusing to move.

**_"Sister..._**

Skin like leather, twisted over a once beautiful face. Eyes once green, now an unholy red. Poor little Amelia, who had, only yesterday delighted in creating sparks from her fingertip. Her sister, with whom she'd shared this sad, dismal life with. The one person she loved more than anything else. Now the abomination crooned cruelly at Meredith in her voice, delighting in the terrors it inflicted. Her sister was gone, and this...this thing, was living in her skin.

She felt ill just looking at her.

"S-Stay back!" Her father bellowed, brandishing his greatsword as though it would somehow ward off the demon at their doorstep. He'd been a Chevalier once, before he met mother. But his skills were dulled by years of complacency and home life. The Abomination smiled; damnit, _it smiled, _and he fell into a bloodied heap of viscera. Her mother joined soon thereafter, visions of her own end flashing before her eyes as she crumpled to her knees beside the blood; utterly paralyzed. Amelia stalked forth, blazing eyes narrowed to amused, half-lidded slits as she came towards Father, because Father would be first. And all the while, Meredith could not bring herself to move.

Instead her mind was consumed by a single question, wrapped up in a lone inquiry.

Why?

Terrified blue eyes could only stare on in horror at the sight before them. She watched, horrified, as the bodies of her parents were tossed about violently like a pair of lifeless dolls. Where had they -she?- gone wrong? What had they done to make her betray them? Turn to a demon Had they not been nothing short of caring? Had they not loved her any less for her gift?

Why were they being hunted?

Her mother's body was thrown against the ground, at her knees. She couldn't get up. No. No no no no... She weakly grasped for a support, only to end up with a fistful of dirt. Feebly, Mother lifted her head, turned to look at her. An eternity passed between them. She extended her shaking arm towards her, as if to reach out to her.

"Meredith...

The girl didn't hesitate a moment longer; she gathered her skirts around her and ran. Amelia shrieked. Still, Mother called out.

_...run!"_

Mother and Father's agaonizing screams cut off abruptly behind her, their bodies violently torn apart by her younger sister. No. Not her sister, she reminded herself. An Abomination. Anything that Amelia had once been died the very moment that demon possessed her. Why hadn't they listened? They'd tried to keep Amelia safe from the Templars, from the Circle, from a fate worse than death. The Stannard's were not particularlly poor by Kirkwall standards, but neither were they rich. Even so, they thought they could help their youngest daughter. Keep her safe. They were wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong.

They never should've hired that apostate, never should've let him teach her. Now they were all going go to die. Still she ran, sprinting through the city, the terror hot on her heels. The abomination did not fixate merely upon her; it killed any soul unfortunate to cross its path. Guards, nobles, even the occsional cat. The time it took to slaughter them was time she used to distance herself from the creature. She hated herself for each an every step; because while she lived, others died.

But she could only run so far.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she tripped, her legs finally giving out, enervation taking hold. The abomination had chased her through to Hightown, all the way to the steps of the chantry. Cool rain still fell down around her, the snarling crack of thunder dancing overhead. She heard Amelia shriek behind her, babbling nonsense. A ways off, she thought she heard a voice.

"Send him in!"

Send him in? Who was that? What were they talking about? In the end she was left to ponder that question, gasping as the abomination's hand closed around her throat. It hoisted her high with a sneer.

**"Time to die, sis-**

_"Rasengan."_

She didn't even see-or hear-the templar until it was almost too late; one moment she was trying to turn, the next, a small body came barreling out of the dark less than a foot away, roaring past her to slam headlong into the abomination. There was a deep crunch of armor meeting flesh, and then all hell broke loose. A spiraling sphere of -what was that, mana?- roared forward in her saviour's hand, the cause of what had flung the beast away in the first place. He turned towards her, eyes alight. When he spoke, his voice was possibly the most soothing thing she'd ever heard.

"Get behind me."

"I-

_"Behind me!"_

He pushed her backwards, and in that instant, she got a good look at his face in the night.

By the Maker he was young, little more than her age. His hair was loose and ragged, shading blue eyes shining like hot coals in his head. His whiskered cheeks pinched into an angry scowl, lips pursed in a thin line. She recognized him as a templar only for the armor he wore; he was by far the smallest one there. Did the templars take children, she wondered? He looked a little young to be a recruit. Lightning flashed, exposing his ears to her eyes. Meredith blinked. An elf.

Flames...that didn't make any sense. There _were _no elves in the templars. It simply didn't happen. She saw other members of the order emerging now, storming down the steps of the Chantry, rising from the shadows of the alleys, entire squads moving to back the lone warrior. The abomination ignored them.

Amelia howled and flung fire at the boy instead. He scoffed.

_"Shinra Tensei."_

The boy raised a hand, and for a moment, his eyes flashed purple. Flames parted around him, pushed aside by an unseen force. He made another gesture-a faint beckoning motion with two fingers-and Amelia _flew._ Her feet were physically ripped from the ground. Right into his arms. The longsword that should've plunged into its heart, should've slashed down in a brutal arcs, instead swung wide, the flat of the blade mercilessly ringing the beast on the head. Amelia toppled forward with a gasp.

Then the blade came down again. With the edge this time.

Amelia was cut across from throat to sternum, a bloody trench opening in her distorted body. Blood spurted forth from the abyss, staining the stones red. Her clawed hands fumbled at the gaping injury, and in that lone instant of panic, the boy struck, sending it sprawling. Perhaps the demon controlling Amelia panicked. Perhaps it feared for its life. Who knew? In either casing, it went stark raving mad as the blond advanced on it, that bloody black blade dragging against the stones of Hightown, keening with sparks as it stalked towards its victim.

**"You cannot take me! You will not have me!"** she thrashed, shooting a cone of ice at him. **"YOU WILL NOT!"**

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." He stepped aside, evading the wave of frost with a nimble step. Anger darkened his visage. "I know your kind, demon, possessing the weak, ravishing the innocent for your own sick amusement. You're not better than _him. Begone!" _He made that eerie motion with his hand once more, and floored the creature all over again. "Now face your demise!"

A wall of

He walked right up to her sister and laid hands on her before she could rise again. Amelia-no, not Amelia!-screamed, her distorted body writhing and warping in his grasp. As though he were grabbing at more than just flesh and fabric-as if he had reached inward, into the very fade itself-oh dear. Were those...hands? Sure enough, before her very eyes, darkness shrouded the air around the abomination, assuming shape and form. The giant gauntlets seemed to hang there for a long moment, forearms peeking out of a portal to Andraste knew where. The boy heaved, his arms still latched onto the demon, and like a puppet, the gauntlets obeyed.

"Find peace in the arms of the Maker."

With a revolting spatter, the abomination burst apart in two severed halves, coating them in flecks of blood and gore. Meredith couldn't find her voice. She tried, but all that emerged was a sob. She was covered in the blood of her mother, her father, and now her sister. But the tears wouldn't come. No matter how hard she tried, the grief simply refused to leave her. It stayed there in her heart, thrashing like a storm-tossed sea, but it would not leave her.

She barely noticed when one of the Templar, in far finer armor than the others, came forward to clap the boy on the back. Congratulations were given, but the templars did not disperse. She soon knew why. One of the men tried to help her up; Meredith jerked back as if she'd been _burned. _Her pale blue eyes locked onto the strange templar with fiery intensity.

"You...you killed her!" She stumbled to her feet, stalking toward him. Ah. There it was. The anger. He didn't flinch when she grabbed him by the lappels of his armored jacket, nor did he flinch when she started shouting at him, damning him for his inability to do more.

"Yes." the blond-haired elf answered without so much as a passing glance. "Would you rather I let her live as an abomination?"

"Surely there was another way!"

"Perhaps." he shrugged. "But there wasn't time. If I hadn't acted, she would have killed more-

_Slap._

The boy jerked aside as her un-injured hand slammed into the side of his face in an open-palmed smack. For the first time since they'd met, an emotion other than anger crossed that visage. Shock. He looked at her as if seeing her, truly seeing her for the fist time. Then he scowled. Tore himself free from her grasp.

To Meredith's surprise, he hit back.

"Ooomph!" the air rushed out of her in a pained grunt as an armored gauntlet slammed into her stomach, doubling her over. Another drove her to the ground. The youth stepped forward, looking as though he intended to do more than just that, but a hand closed around his shoulder before he could advance further.

"Enough."

Knight Commander Guylian stared down at her for a long moment, his stark green eyes appraising. Judging. Considering her worth. Meredith shivered. Those eyes seemed to bore right through her, peer into depths he could see, and she could not. It was...disconcerting. Then he noticed the boy's silence.

"Don't just stand there, lad." Guylian cuffed him lightly on the ear. "Introduce yourself. And apologize. You owe her that much."

The boy muttered something under his breath. Guylian gave him a knowing look.

"Alright, _fine." _Then he turned towards Meredith. A bow was given.

"I...aplogize for my actions, serah. It was not my intent to speak ill of your sister. Might I have your name.

"Meredith." she gave her name, scowling.

The boy nodded, mirroring her expression.

"Naruto." He glanced at her arm, as though just noticing it. "You should let me see that. It needs tending."

"I'm fine." she huffed, refusing to show weakness. "Tis just a flesh wound."

"Tis not."

"Tis so!"

His eyes darkened furiously. A chuckle escaped the Knight Commander, causing him to flush.

"Just let me see, damnit." he snapped, reaching for her. "You gain nothing by being stubborn."

"No."

"I wasn't asking."

"H-Hey!" Wresting her arm away from her bosom, he held it out before him. Meredith hissed softly at the pain that came with it, but found herself unable to resist; he held her fast. A glowing blue palm was raised. His face, once so fierce, was now gentle and tender. Intent, as he pressed the healing energies into her limb. She tried to scowl, but the anger, the grief, the sorrow, none of it came. She felt it leaving her, washing away like the waves on the Wounded Coast beneath his ministrations. Warm. Kind. This stubborn, arguementative boy, wore a different expression altogether while his face was bathed in that blue light.

Caring.

_That was the day that everything changed._

**A/N: Ah, Meredith. Such a misunderstood character. I really like her. Even if you she won't be there for the events of Inquisition. I hope I got her personality down well enough. I swear, she's just so damnably fun to write about sometimes. Her outlook on mages as a whole is starting to shift a little; and now, she has a companion, someone to speak to, divulge her fears, and the like. Maybe, just maybe, things would have been different if she'd had someone to confide in. An equal. That's right!**

**Remember, Naruto's situation is...unique.**

**Things are bound to be different with Naruto around, methinks! Making him an elf may seem strange, but trust me, it serves a purpose. He wasn't always one. How did he become an elf, you ask? Well, you'll just have to read on and find out.**

**So, in the immortal words of Atlas...**

**...Review...would you kindly? And enjoy the preview! Its a cute little one...**

**(Preview)**

_...why are you following me, recruit?"_

_Meredith frowned, instinctually biting back a retort as her fellow blond spun on a heel to face her, the motion sending his armor rattling harshly._

_As a new recruit, she was obligated to answer, but something in his petulant expression made her smile. A skilled warrior he might be, but the boy was not known for his social graces. Despite outranking her, he wasn't very well known amongst the templars; preferring to perfrom his duties and retire to his quarters almost immediately. She'd never seen such severity in someone her own age. Before losing her family, she might'd tried to poke at him, just to mess with him. _

_But the loss of her parents had hardened her-even now, almost four years after the fact._

_She was sixteen years of age; she had grown from that terrified little girl into a young woman. Learned to wield her father's blade, the great twohanded weapon strapped to her back even now. She touched a hand to it and drew in a deep breath, praying to him for courage. She would face her fears. She would speak to him._

_"I wanted to talk." she said at last._

_He leaned against a column, the spiked pauldrons of his armor rasping against the stone as he moved._

_"Then talk."_

_"I...ah," she swallowed, "Wanted to thank you. For saving my life, that is. I never had the chance."_

_That caught him flatfooted; because he didn't answer. A muscle jumped in her jaw._

_...you do know who I am, don't you?"_

_"Yes." his expression softened. "I remember you. Meredith, right? The one with the sister. And the temper."_

_"I-I have no idea what you're talking about."_ _Okay. Time to steer this conversation into safer waters._

_"Do they tease you a lot?" she cocked her head aside, glancing at him askance. "About your...appearance."_

_He unconcsiously thumbed at his ears. "Sometimes."_

_Naruto had endured many an insult, but in the short time that she'd known him on patrol "knife-ear" always seemed to rile him beyond belief. Technically, he wasn't part of the chantry. He shouldn't even be a templar; his home was likely with the mages. And yet, in spite of the complaints endured by others and even pressure from the Viscount himself, Knight Commander Guylian still kept him around. Naruto repaid that generosity with an undying loyalty to the man himself. He claimed that Guylian was like a father to him, having taken him in and sheltered him when he first found himself in Kirkwall three years earlier._

_Of course, that didn't stop him from committing the occasional prank on their fellow templars..._

_Meredith wasn't quite sure she believed his claims about coming from another realm, though. Even fragmented though his memories were. But what else could explain it? The way those blue eyes turned into a rimmed, violent shade of violet whenever he waded into battle. He was well built, for an elf. Not quite stocky, yet not as slim as you'd find in the alienage. __Still, he wore the armor proudly, and took great pride in his duties. She could not bring herself to fault him for that. Nay, if anything, she respected him for it._

_"I think its a load of bollocks."_

_"I'm happy to hear that, ya know." the ghost of a smile graced his whiskered cheeks. "Tis not often I meet someone with such an...open mind. I suppose the pretty face helps."_

_She felt her cheeks color prettily under his compliment._

_"Well..._

_"I'm making a trip to Sundermount." he said, suddenly. "Oh, don't give me that look. It'll be in plain clothes. Would you care to join me?"_

_Meredith paused, flushing the color from her cheeks fighting for control of her faculties once more. At last, she nodded._

_"I don't see why not..._

_Little did she know how that trip would change her view on mages even more..._

**R&R! =D**


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